Margaret Vissier, in her book "Much Depends on Dinner", comments on a number of menus by underlying, at the same time, a history of Canadian cuisine, where each meal is considered as a play with its own plot, actions, and words. But no work about the importance of food in Canadian literature could avoid mentioning Isabella Valancy Crawford whose poem "Herlot" (1884) blends classical elements with Canadian themes.
The essay looks at contemporary Canadian authors who treat the image of wine and food as a metaphor of the quest for individual as well as collective identity. Particular attention is given to Margaret Atwood’s works, in which the theme of food may also be connected to two of the most important aspects of Canadian life: exploration and mapping of the territory, and physical and psychological survival in the Canadian immense, isolated and hostile territories.
Food, wine and spirits could also be used to distinguish the expression of one identity from another. In the essay, the writers concentrating on the Italian-Canadian double identity gain more relevance and some works by Penny Petrone, Caterina Edwards, Gwendolyn MacEwen and Michael Ondaatje are named and analysed.
